Portland Personal Training in Portland, Oregon

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Everyone wants to have a nice looking backside, so here are simple moves you can do at the gym with your workout buddy, by yourself or with your professional personal trainer Portland motivator. Here is a list of 7 exercises you can do to help shape that butt!

1. Straight Leg Deadlifts – this takes some time to get, but with practice you can do it. 2. Step-Ups – You will need a 12, 16 or 18 inch platform to step up on. I would recommend starting out with your body weight and then progressing with external dumbbell weight. 3. Single leg Squat Jumps – You are balancing on leg and then hopping laterally to the other. If you tend to have weak ankles or are recovering from any knee issues, stick to just balancing on leg and do a simple squat. 4. Stability Ball Hamstring Curls – You can do this with one or both legs. 5. Kettle Bell Swings with a Mini Squat – make sure you are using your legs on not your entire lower, middle and upper back to move the weight up. 6. Lateral Steps using Ankle Tubing – this is going to work your abductors to really strengthen and tighten those outer thigh/hip muscles. 7. Single Leg Squat from a Bench or Chair – You want to squat up with one leg from a chair or bench and then back down.

You can always modify these exercises to adjust to fitness levels, so be safe and have fun.

One of the best ways to really hone your skills on the field is to practice the smaller movements that are going to make you more agile and therefore, quicker with power. The use of agility ladders and hurdles can be some of the best fundamental types of exercises you can do, because just those small movement patterns can make or break a football play, a quick soccer move, getting caught stealing or leading off at first base or just making quick moves in basketball. In addition, this helps strengthen those small stabilization muscles that need to fire upon request when making those small angle moves or mini hops to catch that ball.
If you are working with a fitness coach, athletic trainer or Portland personal trainer, ask them about incorporating these types of movement patterns into your existing routine. In addition, some of these exercises can be accomplished with just simple cones laid out on the ground and going through different movements for periods of times and sets.

If you have ever gone up from a chair and you felt your knee cap click or snap, then this could be your problem. What we recommend is going to your Orthopedic Medical Doctor and have them evaluate what is going on and they will be able to tell you with certainty if this is your problem or not.

If they say it is, then they are going to recommend that you go to physical therapy, which a wise choice. The exercises, stretches and massage that you are going to learn from them can be implemented at home, which will make or break your recovery.

It is great when you go physical therapy, because all of the exercises are already planned out and you are forced to them or get massaged while the therapists is there. If you are not sticking to the exercises at home, then you need to find a way for them to get completed. One way is to seek a fitness professional or Portland personal trainer in your area. Most importantly, you need to take your exercise prescription that your physical therapist and physician gave you so they know exactly what they need to focus on and what to avoid.

Some of the exercises that you are going to be doing:

45 degree angle squat or isometric squat with no shoes on. The reason you will do this is because you need to strengthen the inner medial quadriceps muscle, which tends to become weak with most people.

Abduction movement to both left and right side with a resistance tubing. So basically, you are moving side to side with this band in order to strengthen the medial gluteus muscles, which also will become weak

Stretching and massaging the IT or Iliotibial Band, which will become tight and create a force that will cause your patella to get off track, which can result in that clicking noise.

If you do not like to stretch, stretch between sets? Here are some tips you can use?

Stretching is often times that part of a workout that is often dismissed. The slow, low energy movements are viewed as a waste of time, and not enjoyable. The truth is, stretching on a regular basis can help with flexibility and return our muscles to their original state before our workout began. Here are some ways to incorporate stretching into your routine to optimize movement and reduce tightness and soreness.

Foam roll after your warm up. Foam rolling before your workout can help breaks up muscle knots in your body that have developed over time. Roll back and forth on the focus area for 60 seconds, and apply weighted pressure to the more tender areas. Although it may hurt in the moment, it will allow you a greater range of motion.

Stretch in between sets. Nothing feels better after a series of squats than stretching out your quadriceps. Take time to stretch out the muscles being worked before heading into the next set.

Stretch after your workout. Look at it as a time to reflect on your workout. Did you go as hard as you could have? Were there exercises that didn’t feel right? Are there particular muscles that feel tighter than others? Spend extra attention on those muscles.

Assisted Stretching. You can always get some assisted stretching from your workout partner, fellow gym member or your fitness or Portland personal trainer that you are working with. Getting assisted stretching can be an excellent, especially if it is consistent during and after every workout.

Many of us want to achieve great things. We want to be the best we can be, go where no one else has gone, and reach success that makes us feel accomplished.

There is one major thing standing in our way. As a Portland personal trainer would tell you, if you don’t believe it, you won’t achieve it. You have to be able to visualize yourself reaching your target weight, completing a pull up that you’ve never been able to do before, or crossing the finish line of your first marathon. If think it will never happen, than it won’t.

Going hand in hand with visualization is hard work. Think and plan out the things you will do in order to make your goal happen. You’re not just going to happen to wake up one day and find that all the hard work has been done for you. If you want something, and care about something enough, you will put in the work and get to where you want to be.

The night before your big race, visualize yourself calm before the start. Picture yourself pushing through that hill while your legs are screaming. See yourself sprinting to the finish line, even when you feel like you have nothing left to give. Prepping yourself for the obstacles that will stand in your way will make you that much stronger in surpassing them.

The most neglected part of a workout is what you ask? Stretching. People often overlook it and skip on it more times than not. It it often viewed as an uneccessarily part of the equation and left behind.

As Portland personal trainers, we know the benefits, and importance of stretching and the great things it can do for your body. Not only does it help you cool down and return your heart beat to a normal rate, but it also brings your muscles back to the length they started at. This help prevent muscle strain and muscle pulls.

One of my clients swears by stretching, so much that she takes part in it any chance she can get. And guess what? She’s never had a single injury in her life. Stretching may seem like a useless thing because we’re not sweating, our hearts aren’t racing, and we don’t feel like we’re doing work. We have to remember that stretching is so valuable, and it’s what allows us to continue pushing and challenging our bodies in our workouts to come.

Next time you finish a workout and think about heading straight for home, rethink your decision. Think how much better you’ll feel after you stretch your body while also improving your flexibility.

You workout hard. You push yourself to the limits in the gym and your body can certainly feel it the next day. When you get home, you reward yourself with an oversized dinner, because hey you worked out right?

The problem with this mentally, that many gym goers and fitness fanatics have, is that if you work hard, the amount of food you consume doesn’t matter. Any Portland Personal Trainer would tell you that having this mindset is fatal to your goals. Sure, someone who works out can consume more calories than someone who is sedentary, but over consuming is where you get in trouble.

Think of it this way. Someone has been smoke free for 2 weeks straight. To reward themselves for it, they smoke a half pack of cigarettes. Sounds pretty hypocritical, right? The same goes for food and working out. You can workout for hours and sweat your tush off, but if you go home and eat everything in your fridge, you’ve just negated your entire workout.

Here are some tips to avoid overeating post workout:

1. Drink water post workout. This will fill up your stomach and give your body more of a sense of fullness.

Many, many diets appear out of the wood work year after year. Most of them promising to be easier and faster than any before them. While trends come and go in many fascists of life, there is one diet that has remained and lasted far beyond the rest. The winner: counting calories the old school way.

Weight watchers falls into this category with a point system. You’re alloted a certain amount of points each day and you keep track of them as you eat. Counting calories follows the same principle. You decide how much weight you want to lose and a healthy calorie intake that will get you there each day and you’re on your way!

A Portland Personal Trainer would recommend checking out apps or free websites that will tell you an appropriate calorie intake for you. Lose it and My Fitness Pal are two apps that come to mind that have brought many of my clients success.

With weight loss, it doesn’t require any fancy tools that will cost hundreds of dollars or meals that are made for you. All it takes is the action to count your calories, the motivation to become healthier, and family and friends that you surround yourself with that will support you day in and day out.

We’ve all reached that point in a workout where our mind is telling is that our body is tired and we just should stop. We’ve hit our limit and couldn’t possibly do anymore. We desperately look for a distraction so that we finish our workout strong and not stop short.

Your personal trainer Portland believes that music is a great detterent from the challenge, both mentally and physically, that a workout can bring. Our mind tends to take over and thoughts of fatigue and struggle take over our body. A great song or playlist may be just what you need to push through those thoughts and maintain a good workout.

There are some things to consider when choosing your music to workout to. First and foremost, it should be song(s) that you enjoy. Secondly, your music should be something that excites you. It might be that song that comes on the radio that makes you want to break out in dance, or that song you want to belt out from your lungs because it really resonates with you. Those are the songs that should make up your workout playlist.

These songs should ignite a powerful feeling inside you. Anger, happiness, a feeling of strength or accomplishment. Even songs that make you sad may help you power through a workout. Everyone is different, and sounds affect people in various ways. Find what motivates you, and play it loud and proud in your next workout.

How many times have you seen someone working out in the gym, constantly pushing their hair back out of their face? A Portland personal trainer would tell you this is a waste of time and interrupts the focus of your workout.

The last thing you want to worry about while you’re lifting weights or running intervals on the treadmill is fretting about a strand of hair that falls before your eyes and impairs your vision. Sure, bobby pins can help secure the loose ends for the time being, but they’re not going to keep them at bay for the duration of your workout.

There are many hair accessories and options out there, but not all will be effective. Here are the things you want to look out for when picking out a headband:

1. Make sure the headband has some width. If it’s too thin, it’s not going to be very helpful in keeping your hair back.

2. Choose a headband that fits nice and snug. If it’s too loose, you’ll have more than just a few strands of hair to worry about.

3. Ensure that the headband has an sticky elastic band on the underside of the headband. This prevents it from moving back and forth on your head.